Democrats Want Their Private Security Looking Over GOP Poll Watchers’ Shoulders
On Tuesday, The New York Times revealed the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State (DASS) is gearing up to launch Value the Vote, a new nonprofit organization purportedly designed to pay “for private security for election officials of both parties, register[ing] new voters,” and fighting what the group claims to be “disinformation.” The $10 million initiative is reportedly aiming its “initial[]” focus at five key battleground states: Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, and Wisconsin.
The venture has already raised $2.5 million, according to DASS Executive Director Travis Brimm.
As indicated by The Times, the founding of Value the Vote is based on the debunked lie that there is a growing, widespread problem of Republicans threatening election workers across the country. Of course, the lack of evidence to support such an assertion hasn’t stopped legacy media from regurgitating their Democrat allies’ phony narratives in order to paint Republican voters as extremists and dissuade conservatives from partaking in legitimate forms of electoral oversight.
In their remarks to The Times, Brimm and DASS officials claimed Value the Vote “will provide equal funding opportunities to both Democratic and Republican election officials, but how the distribution will work in practice is unclear.” Brimm also indicated “election officials could request grants to pay for private security themselves and that Values the Vote would also proactively offer private security.”
According to Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, the group’s issuance of private grants to election offices could very well be unlawful. “Most states make it illegal for anyone to be stationed in a polling place except for election officials and designated poll watchers, and that ban would include ‘private’ security guards,” von Spakovsky told The Federalist.
Von Spakovsky further contended the stationing of private security guards at election offices and polling sites could constitute a violation of section 11(b) of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which states that no one “shall intimidate, threaten, or coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce,” any individual who is “voting or attempting to vote” or “urging or aiding any person to vote or attempt to vote.”
“The presence of such private law enforcement could scare individuals attempting to vote and deter them from asking election officials questions. This would particularly be the case if those guards were armed,” von Spakovsky said.
